I was listening to National Steel by Colin James the other
night and a remarkable think happened: I got totally caught up in the driving
beat. Foot tapping, knee bouncing, head bobbing ...
Not so unusual for a good song with a driving beat? Here's the thing: it happened without drums! It's an acoustic number. The drums enter late and build slowly - way after I'd been swept into the song. The guitar is mostly off the beat, in a Hooker boogie sort of way.
So what's going on? My brain, my something, decided the beat was there even though it wasn't. I supplied it in my head. And it was powerful.
How does that work? Cultural conditioning? Memory? Association? Emotion?
Did Colin James intend me to react that way or did I do it myself?
I don't have the scientific knowledge to understand what part(s) of my brain or what triggers in my electro-chemical system were in play. All I know is that I was hearing - no, feeling - something that wasn't there.
But it was, and that's magic.
Not so unusual for a good song with a driving beat? Here's the thing: it happened without drums! It's an acoustic number. The drums enter late and build slowly - way after I'd been swept into the song. The guitar is mostly off the beat, in a Hooker boogie sort of way.
So what's going on? My brain, my something, decided the beat was there even though it wasn't. I supplied it in my head. And it was powerful.
How does that work? Cultural conditioning? Memory? Association? Emotion?
Did Colin James intend me to react that way or did I do it myself?
I don't have the scientific knowledge to understand what part(s) of my brain or what triggers in my electro-chemical system were in play. All I know is that I was hearing - no, feeling - something that wasn't there.
But it was, and that's magic.
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